Accountability Part 2

Accountability to ourselves:

Matthew 7:3-5 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

Proverbs 12:15 The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.

Accountability to one another:

Accountable to Encourage One Another

Hebrews 3:12-13 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

Hebrews 10:24-25 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

1 Thessalonians 5:11 Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

 

Accountable to Each Other About Our sins

Galatians 6:1-5 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.

James 5:16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

Luke 17:3 Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, 4 Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.”

 

Matthew 18:15-17 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

 

1 John 5:16 If you see any brother or sister commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray and God will give them life.

Accountable to Bear One Another’s Burdens:

Galatians 6:2-5 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load.

 

Difference between load and burden. Load is what is put on us individually that is our responsibility individually to carry alone. It can be light or heavy, but it is expected to be carried by someone, like freight is naturally carried on a ship. But burdens are oppressive things that are overwhelming and require help to carry from someone else. God doesn’t call you to help others with their Load, their own responsibilities, but only in overwhelming situations where they cannot do it themselves. It is a temporary thing a majority of the time.

 

Galatians 6:5. Φορτίον. The Greek word for Load was applied to the pack usually carried by a porter or a soldier on the march. In Matthew 11:30 Christ employs this figure to describe the burden which he lays on each of his disciples (τὸ φορτίον μου), and here it denotes the regular daily burden laid on Christians. It is necessary to distinguish this from the heavy loads (βάρη) or burdens to which Galatians 6:2 refers as needing the help of Christian brethren for the relief of overtaxed carriers.

 

So basically, you are not to help other people with their backpacks – it is part of their MORAL responsibility for themselves to carry it.  However, the boulders, the oppressive loads, you are called to help others carry.

Accountable to Love One Another:

1 John 3:23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.

1 John 4:11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.    21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.